What is a healthcare proxy?

A healthcare proxy is useful when planning your estate. When you decide on important issues for how you want your end of life care to be administered, you can share this with your healthcare proxy. Your proxy is then supposed to act upon these decisions you have made when the time comes. Through the representation of a healthcare proxy, you are still able to be in control during end of life care. When you can no longer make decisions for yourself, you will already have someone who knows what you originally wanted. This can include the use of life support, organ donation or anything else you may find important.

What else should I plan for my estate administration?

For an estate administration, there are many things to consider. You may wish to pass along possessions to your children, grandchildren or any other loved one. Due to this desire, you will want to outline what possessions should be passed along and to whom they should be given to. In order to do this, a will would be best.

How can a will help plan my estate?

Through the execution of a will, you can plan your whole estate. This is a legal document that should be honored upon your death. To execute a will in Massachusetts, there are certain requirements that must be met. This is to ensure the validity of the will. When a will is being made, the individual has to be of sound mind and body. This prevents the manipulation of the individual by outside parties. It also can show that their decisions were made clearly for a purpose. Two witnesses have to be present to acknowledge the validity of the will. The witnesses and the individual making the will have to sign after the document is completed. This declares that there were people to witness the document being signed into legality.

Is a trust beneficial to set up?

While a will is a way to pass along possessions through probate, trusts are set up to pass assets outside of probate. This can be beneficial to individuals because the assets coming from a trust avoid involvement of the Surrogate Court. Also, a trust has tax benefits that can help beneficiaries save money on taxes that would normally be assigned due to an asset. There are varying forms of trusts and they each come with a specific purpose.
